Los Angeles history

A knight on the town

When I saw this ad, my first reaction was: "You have GOT to be kidding me."

My next reaction was: "Maybe it's still there!"

Alas, no. The Queens Arms at 16325 Ventura Blvd. has been replaced by a Ralphs
grocery store. And not even a Medieval-themed grocery store. What fun is that?

The Queens Arms was built by John and Chris Skoby, who also operated the Kings
Arms in Toluca Lake. The restaurant was designed by
Martin
Obzina, the art director on "House of Dracula" and "House of Frankenstein."
(OK, to be fair, he received Oscar nominations for "The Flame of New Orleans"
and "First Love.")

Here's restaurant columnist Ken Tichenor's description from the Mirror: "Obzina
built them a castle with turrets and spirals and huge doors and towering flaming
torches outside. Also plenty of parking space.